News

Seeing Color in a Whole New Light

04/02/2012

At first glance, the group on stage had
nothing in common. What could a world-renowned artist, an interplanetary
photographer and a marine biologist possibly discuss with equal zest and
expertise? Answer: color, of course.

On March 1 artist Spencer Finch MFA 89 SC, biologist Christopher Deacutis and writer/photographer Michael Benson came together at the RISD Museum to discuss the meaning
of color in their own work and in the shifting ground between art and
science.

Finch, a RISD alumnus with a major exhibition
at the RISD Museum through late July, started the conversation by describing
his own artistic relationship to hues, shades, pigments and paints. He
explained how he uses color to do amazing things, such as draw smells, sculpt
models of molecular structures and chart patterns in his dreams. He also spoke
briefly about the effects of color that are evident in the Museum’s current
show Painting Air: Spencer Finch, which the Boston Globe calls “extremely
beautiful” and “full of visual curiosity and glimmers of humor.”

Deacutis, a marine biologist who analyzes
aerial photographs of algae along the Rhode Island coastline, spoke about how computer
analysis of these photos breaks down algal growth by color. This allows
researchers to distinguish different species and their growth patterns, which,
in turn, helps explain the effects of foreign nutrients and pollution in
coastal waters.

Benson, the photographer, explained the
importance of depicting “true color” – or what our eyes detect in the
visible-light spectrum – when assembling raw image data from space probes. He
revealed that what we usually see in deep-space photographs is “representative
color,” which shows concentrations of wavelengths not actually visible to the
human eye.

Despite their totally different backgrounds,
the speakers discussed their common experiences with color, expressing the
importance of personal interpretation, the need for the human hand and mind in
describing and distinguishing between hues, and the beauty as well as the
informative nature of color. Audience members were asked to question their own
assumptions and associations, and to expand their thinking to incorporate both
scientific and artistic aspects of color. All in all, the discussion led people
to leave seeing color in a whole new light.